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| Photo by Katie Kay |
I've been doing fondant research for a long time but never had the desire to give it a try. I'm WAY too fond of elaborately flavored, filled, and garnished cakes. I don't like the taste of fondant (not even marshmallow fondant) but I think Kaylen is finally at an age where she will better appreciate a decorative (less tasty, IMO) cake.
Perfect example: Last year she didn't like her cake because it had a strawberry jam filling and she said jelly doesn't go on cakes. She's a sugar, butter and food-dye kind of girl.
She wanted a pink and zebra striped party this year, and I obliged. I planned a 2-tiered round layer cake with zebra pattern on the inside, pink fondant on the bottom tier, and zebra fondant on the top tier. I borrowed fondant supplies (2 sized rollers, smoother, mat, etc) from my friend Janet (a fondant expert) and saved a small fortune. Thanks, pumpkin!
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| Photo by Katie Kay |
Happy Father's Day! Kaylen wanted to bake Matt some cupcakes today. Since I'm such a control freak in the kitchen and I usually limit what she is allowed to help with, she was stoked to be allowed to bake her own cupcakes from start to finish all by herself. I swear, I didn't do a thing! She even cleaned up!
We chose Martha's Devil's Food Cupcakes because I had all the ingredients and Matt's favorite cake is chocolate. Kaylen wanted vanilla frosting, although I tried my hardest to sway her towards chocolate. Vanilla frosting...pssshhhh. I don't know where she gets that from. Definitely not me.
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| Photo by Katie Kay |
I have never in my life willingly chosen chicken over beef. That would be a crime against humanity. And when I suggested to Matt that these tacos might be better than beef, or at least comparable, he disagreed with me. To put it mildly. However, I think that's only because he has something deep down inside that won't allow him to admit such a thing. Because I've never seen him moan over beef tacos.
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| Photo by Matt Sechrist |
For my dad's birthday I knew I was going to do something either Snickerdoodle or German Chocolate because those are his favorites. I considered cupcakes or a cake, and ended up choosing the German Chocolate cake because it felt more birthday-ey.
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| Photo by Katie Kay |
I've made several variations of this recipe in the past and typically I make it with Italian sausage, which is fantastic. Tonight I had to make do with pantry staples because this was a last-minute throw-together meal, so it ended up vegetarian. Matt didn't smash his plate down to the floor in protest, so I guess he was okay with it.
And yes, vodka is a pantry staple.
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| Photo by Katie Kay |
To call this a 'contest' may be misleading. It's more like comparison shopping. I've made so many different chocolate chip cookie recipes, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who is always in search of the perfect one. I can't promise that one of these 6 recipes will produce your perfect cookie, but it was fun to find 6 very different recipes and see what we liked and didn't like about them all.
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| Photo by Katie Kay |
This recipe calls for melted butter instead of softened, which sounded very strange to me. Baking Illustrated has an excellent explanation into their research on page 433 (which is one of the hundreds of reasons I'm in the middle of reading this cookbook as if it were a novel.) Basically they wanted a chewy cookie, so they melted the butter so the flour can react faster with the fat molecules of the butter forming gluten, which makes the cookie chewy.
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| Photo by Katie Kay |
I saw this recipe on I am Baker and followed her sources to The New York Times, who she says picked these as their favorite chocolate cookies. What intrigued me about these were the delicious looking pictures (I prefer flat cookies, not puffy ones) as well as the use of bread flour and cake flour.
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| Photo by Katie Kay |
The term 'vegan' sometimes turns people off (including me) so let's not think of these cookies as vegan. Let's think of them as a lighter, healthier version of chocolate chip cookies! Keep an open mind.
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| Photo by Katie Kay |
I have no idea what or where Levain Bakery is, but this recipe caught my eye because of the 3 varieties of sugars, lack of vanilla, cold vs. softened butter, and cornstarch. Interesting!
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| Photo by Katie Kay |
I am not 100% sure if this is the recipe my mom always made when I was growing up, but for some reason THIS is the classic recipe that comforts the very cockles of my heart with every spoonful of raw dough and with every warm, soft cookie dunked in a glass of cold milk.
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| Photo by Katie Kay |
I love Pioneer Woman's main dish recipes, but she's not typically my go-to person for desserts (with the exception of her Peach Crisp with Maple Cream Sauce) however I wanted to try her Chocolate Chip Cookies due to the mixture of butter and margarine (which I frown upon in baking) as well as her use of instant coffee and flax seed.
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